Mr Nasheed received 45.08 percent of the popular vote and is set for a run-off with Abdulla Yameen, who garnered 31.21 percent of the vote.

The official count showed that a further 3.4 percent of the vote was yet to be declared, but even if all of it went to Mr Nasheed he was still short of the 50 percent needed to win outright to avoid a run-off scheduled for Sunday.

Mr Nasheed was expected to win the election, having secured a clear lead over his two challengers on September 7, despite falling five percentage points short of the 50 per cent threshold needed for outright victory.

The Maldives Supreme Court annulled the results of September's presidential elections, a poll widely seen by foreign and local observers as free and fair.

Mr Nasheed, the country's first democratically elected president who came to power in 2008, resigned on February 7, 2012.

He later said he had been forced out of office in a military-backed coup.

However, a Commonwealth probe said the transfer of power was constitutional.

In his final campaign speech on Friday, Mr Nasheed said he was expecting a clear victory

"God willing, we will win this election in one round," he said at a rally in the capital Male.

Mr Nasheed's hopes were boosted by outgoing president Mohamed Waheed's decision not to stand after he won just five per cent of the votes in September.

Meanwhile, the leader of Yameen's Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) has accused unidentified attackers of trying to firebomb his house on Friday night, but said the attempt failed because of rain.